So the other week I sent a message to my local CW station. I don't remember what I said specifically, but it was something like this:

Hello,

There are 21 seasons of The Simpsons, please rerunning seasons 19 and 20. It's really annoying.

-Elizabeth

In fact, those are probably close enough to my exact words. So today they emailed back, and this is their explanation:

Your note regarding THE SIMPSONS episodes has been sent to me. THE SIMPSONS has been in syndication for over 10 years. During that time KBHK (now KBCW) has aired the program either twice or three times a day (Monday through Friday) for most of that time. By our agreement with Twentieth Television we can only air each SIMPSONS episode a particular amount of times. As long as THE SIMPSONS remains on the Fox Network our contract to air the syndicated episodes is extended for each network season. Over the years we have just about used up all the early broadcasts of THE SIMPSONS. From time to time Twentieth Television will license additional airings of these early episodes. Each time we have purchased these additional broadcasts but the agreement is for only two or three broadcasts. Since we air 10 broadcasts a week currently we go through them very quickly. Each fall we automatically acquire the previous network seasons episodes. Our agreement allows us many runs of these “new” episodes but given the math, they become our main episodes. It is impossible to keep all of THE SIMPSONS episodes in balance and at this point in their syndicated run the last couple of seasons are our primary episodes to broadcast. When and if the distributor makes additional runs of the early episodes available we will most likely acquire them as well.I hope this answers your question.

Well yes, it does answer my question. It also tells me that the CW is under contractual obligation to annoy the shit out of me. I just don't understand why the local Fox station is allowed to air all of Friends, even though Friends is from NBC, but Fox does not let my local station air all of Simpsons. The Simpsons is really the only show I have ever encountered this problem with, and so actually, I feel left with more questions than answers, that remaining question being WHY THE FUCK.

So I did not watch The Simpsons today, instead I took a nap. Which was actually just as useful as watching that rerun I've seen 21348 times because I had a dream I was at work and there was a snake in my shirt. It wouldn't get out of my shirt, and after I finally got it to let go of my bra it chased me. I didn't know it was chasing me, I'd just look down and it be there coiling around my leg and I couldn't shake it. Then it bit me on the foot and my hand (for some reason) immediately blew up into a painful blister before my eyes that kept growing and growing and luckily I woke up before the panic attack started.